


"How Can I Trust You?"

by TwoCatsTailoring



Category: Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Dorian Pavus Tries Very Hard, Fictober 2018, Freeing Slaves, M/M, Mentioned Tevinter Slavery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-08
Updated: 2018-10-08
Packaged: 2021-01-24 08:01:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 509
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21334900
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TwoCatsTailoring/pseuds/TwoCatsTailoring
Summary: Daniel helps Dorian with a problem.
Relationships: Male Inquisitor/Dorian Pavus, Male Lavellan/Dorian Pavus
Kudos: 7
Collections: Short Things from TwoCatsTailoring





	"How Can I Trust You?"

“How can I trust you?”

Of course, from where the person in front of him stood, the answer was simple: he couldn’t. Still, Daniel was not in the habit of making promises that he couldn’t keep nor was he in the habit of glossing over that either.

“I can’t promise you endless safety or a perfect life. But for you and the rest, it is here if you want it.”

The elderly elf in front of him, hair snowy white and his face deeply lined with wrinkles, looked off into the far distance, considering for a long moment before his still-clear eyes cut back to Daniel, “I know who you are, even if the Magister doesn’t say it.”

Daniel felt something inside of him shift uncomfortably but stood still. Shuffling would show a crack in his resolve. He was well-aware of this. Even if it wasn’t his resolve to show weakness in. Because this had been Dorian’s idea in the first place. Yes, he hadn’t known how to manage it and neither of them was sure if this would work as Dorian intended, but he had wanted so much to try. To make his time in the South and everything he’d learned mean something instead of just being hollow knowledge.

And Daniel had always been able to resist everything but Dorian’s earnest desire to do something better than what had been done in the past.

So here he was, standing in an antechamber of some sort, wondering if the longest-held elven slave of House Pavus was going to chose to leave with the 37 others who had taken the offer of freedom and protection with Clan Lavellan or stay in the only home he’d ever known.

The minutes dragged on with the elder surveying him closely, eyes narrowed, thoughtful, his mouth set in an unreadable line. Daniel wondered exactly what he meant when he said he knew who he was. Did he mean that he knew Daniel was the Inquisitor? Probably not, most everyone knew that and what he looked like. Did he mean that he knew Daniel and Dorian were lovers? More of a stretch as that was the best-kept secret in the Inquisition. But if he did….

“I will accept the offer, Inquisitor. But I will remain here. A man so old as I am would only slow you down.”

That feeling he’d had years before, at the Winter Palace, of fumbling in the dark, of not knowing friend from foe, of being in so far over his head that all he could see was dark water, came back with a crash.

“How do I know I can trust you?” Daniel blurted, good manners lost in a swirl of ‘what ifs’ that had no reasonable or safe ending in his head.

“Because I could have killed him as a babe, knifed his father in the night, engineered a nasty fall down the stairs for his grandfather. But,” the old man bowed stiffly over his cane, “I did not. Now go, time is on no one’s side here.”


End file.
